Charcuterie Workshop with Nathan Colello Gilmour

A dream of a day yesterday. Let me tell you about it.

I love pork. Prosciutto, ribs, the B in BLT, char siu. Hundreds of the world’s best meat products all coming from the same animal.

But pork is also the worst of industrial agriculture. You’d hope massive systems can withstand any storm, bolstered by billions of dollars and millions of people. But as I often yammer on about, that’s far from the truth: conventional meat production is an infuriatingly fragile system that makes people and planet sicker.

I still do believe in meat as a nutritional and cultural fixture. And I think meat can be raised well enough for people & planet that the violence behind a piece of meat is an acceptable trade-off (sorry piggies!).

So this weekend, something special: We ordered two beautiful pork shoulders from @gutkerkow just north of Berlin. This pig ate well and lived a good life, and we made the most out of its death by processing and preserving everything we had. Leading us was @orsedelamer, trained in French butchery and charcuterie. He’s a pro at making amazing product without wasting a single scrap or strip. Here’s what we got out of our 5-hour pork-a-thon:

🍖 Ham (one large, one small): sliceable roasts with salt & pepper

⚾ Gascon Fricandeaux: pâté spheres of ground pork, liver, potato, and onion, also baked hot and long to render the fat and create a firm and creamy texture.

🌭Saucisse de Toulouse: pork, salt, pepper. Nothing to hide here, just great sausages ready for the grill.

🐖Rillettes: my favorite output — a gorgeous fatty spread of shredded pork (the bones and a hock cooked in a simple stock for a few hours)

☕ Stock: a golden pork stock from the rillettes (hock & bones). Solid at room temp, ready for ramen.

🧈Lard: clean, rendered fat.

🌀Skin rolls: a slab of skin tied up with twine, ready to enrich our next stew or pot of beans.

All-told, these 7 products will keep for weeks with dozens of applications, starting with the pictured ham and butter sandwich made with a roast.

Damn good stuff. So thankful to Nathan (@orsodelamer) for sharing his craft and our neighbors Sarah (@feinedame) and Clemens (@clemensvonwalter) for hosting. Unforgettable day learning how the sausage gets made.